Laws Concerning Vows

(Matthew 5:33-37)

1And Moses speaketh unto the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, ‘This [is] the thing which Jehovah hath commanded: 2‘When a man voweth a vow to Jehovah, or hath sworn an oath to bind a bond on his soul, he doth not pollute his word; according to all that is going out from his mouth he doth.

3‘And when a woman voweth a vow to Jehovah, and hath bound a bond in the house of her father in her youth, 4and her father hath heard her vow, and her bond which she hath bound on her soul, and her father hath kept silent at her, then have all her vows been established, and every bond which she hath bound on her soul is established. 5‘And if her father hath disallowed her in the day of his hearing, none of her vows and her bonds which she hath bound on her soul is established, and Jehovah is propitious to her, for her father hath disallowed her.

6‘And if she be at all to a husband, and her vows [are] on her, or a wrongful utterance [on] her lips, which she hath bound on her soul, 7and her husband hath heard, and in the day of his hearing, he hath kept silent at her, then have her vows been established, and her bonds which she hath bound on her soul are established. 8‘And if in the day of her husband’s hearing he disalloweth her, then he hath broken her vow which [is] on her, and the wrongful utterance of her lips which she hath bound on her soul, and Jehovah is propitious to her.

9‘As to the vow of a widow or cast-out woman, all that she hath bound on her soul is established on her. 10‘And if [in] the house of her husband she hath vowed, or hath bound a bond on her soul with an oath, 11and her husband hath heard, and hath kept silent at her — he hath not disallowed her — then have all her vows been established, and every bond which she hath bound on her soul is established. 12‘And if her husband doth certainly break them in the day of his hearing, none of the outgoing of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, is established — her husband hath broken them — and Jehovah is propitious to her.

13‘Every vow and every oath — a bond to humble a soul — her husband doth establish it, or her husband doth break it; 14and if her husband certainly keep silent at her, from day unto day, then he hath established all her vows, or all her bonds which [are] upon her; he hath established them, for he hath kept silent at her in the day of his hearing; 15and if he doth at all break them after his hearing, then he hath borne her iniquity.’

16These [are] the statutes which Jehovah hath commanded Moses between a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, in her youth, [in] the house of her father.